Angles: Women Working in Film and Video (1991)

exchange people Gloria J. Gibson-Hudson, assistant director of the Black Film Center Archive in Bloomington Ind., continues her research on black women filmmakers. Next summer, she will participate in a conference in Nigeria, West Africa, entitled “Women in Africa and the African Diaspora: Bridges Across Activism and the Academy.” Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” had so many sold-out screenings at Chicago’s Blacklight Film Festival in August that additional screenings were added. Dash was recently awarded a Fullbright Fellowship to work and study in England in 1992 with Maureen Blackwood and Sankofa Films and Video. L.A. film critic and our West Coast contributing editor, Harriet Robbins was the moderator for a UCLA Film and Television Archive “Critics Choice” program, presented in association with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The program featured director Charles Burnett. After his film “To Sleep With Anger” was shown, there was a panel discussion on the film with participants including Burnett, associate producer Linda Koulisis, Carnetta Jones, Wonderful Smith, Sy Richardson and child actor De Vaughn Walter Nixon. Several audience members also shared family stories and folk lore. Penny Marshall was the recipient of the Los Angeles Film Teachers’ Association Jean Renoir Humanitarian Award for her work on “Awakenings.” The group’s 14 ANGLES Responsibility in Television Award went to Debbie Allen, Deborah Aal, Joanne Curley Kerner, Susan Fales and Marcie Carsey for their work on “A Different World.” Radha Bharadwaj received the Courage in Filmmaking Award for her film, “Closet Land.” The Documentary Award went to Pola Miller for a new series “Backstage at the Zoo.” May Pietz Behrend was named director of the Chicago International Festival of Children’s Films. Behrend has been a member of the Board of the Screen Educator's Society and a jurist for several international film festivals. She created the filmmaking and criticism program at Niles North High School in Skokie, Ill. and taught children’s literature at National College of Education in Evanston, Ill. According to The Independent, Martha Gever has been named the executive director of the Association of Independent Video Filmmakers. Gever previously was the editor of the magazine. She also is a film and video critic, freelance editor and lecturer. Patricia Thomson was appointed editor. The Independent aiso reported that B. Ruby Rich resigned from her post as director of the Electronic Media and Film program at the New York State Council on the Arts. She was director of the film program for more than 10 years. She will be developing writing projects. Ellen Schneider, who was a co-producer at P.O.V., has taken the post of director of communications at the Independent Television Service. Sharon Lloyd Spence of Chicago completed an 8-minute video, “The Exodus Continues,” about the resettlement of Ethiopian and Russian Jews in Israel. She collected scenes of Ethiopians and Russian arrivals learning Hebrew, moving into new homes and trying to find work. The video is images and music without narration. It was sponsored by the Jewish United Fund and will be shown throughout America to raise funds for immigrants. Darris Hatch, executive vice president of feature productions for Columbia was a judge for the Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum contest. A script by Wanda Warner, Purcellville, Va., won second place. Warner's “Chief to Chief” is about an African tribal chief who faces many challenges in leading his people to a new life. Laurie Scheer, who previously worked with Viacom Productions in the Milwaukee metropolitan area, was a judge in the television category. A “Golden Girls” script by Janie Parent and Jean C. Robles of Racine, Wis., was the first place winner. “A Stack of Black Cats” by Lynne Merrick, Belgrade, Montana, has been shown at several festivals. The work captures the rhythm of the life of Lima, a woman living alone on a mountain farm and focuses on her quiet strength and her relationship with her family. Simple tasks, such as gathering eggs, coloring them, feeding the cattle and cooking breakfast, take on the importance of ritual. “A Stack of Black Cats” was awarded second place, non-commercial documentary at the Montana Film & Video Festival 1990, and honorable mention, documentary film, at the Atlanta Film & Video Festival 1991. It was shown as part of the “Heroines” series, sponsored by Women in the Director's Chair at the Chicago Cultural Center, 1991; Fourth Annual Women’s Film & Video Festival, W.0.W. Cafe, N.Y., 1991; and the Millenium Film Workshop, N.Y., 1991. For more information: Lynne Merrick, 11248 GeeNorman Rd., Belgrade, MT 59714. Independent video producer/director/writer Jill Petzall from St. Louis, Mo., has received several awards for her experimental documetary “November Nine.” (Petzall writes about the creative process of making the video in this issue.) The video maker describes her work as a personal response to the demolition of the Berlin Wall and to other German surroundings during the historic summer of 1990. “November Nine” won the following awards: Silver Award for video art at the Houston International Film and Video Festival; Best of the Fest July’s Award at the Big Muddy Film and Video Festival; Winner for Video Art at the Hometown USA Video Festival; Special Merit Screening for Political Art at the EarthPeace Film Festival; Honorable Mention at the Sinking Creek Film Festival; Certificate of Merit at the National Fine Arts Video Competition; Honorable Mention at the